Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2027

This Homemade INDEPENDENCE DAY Trailer is Almost as Good as the Real Thing

If you celebrate the 4th of July, we hope you’re out and about eating and drinking too much at barbecues and readying yourselves for fireworks extravaganzas. However, if weather, work, or other plans have you stuck inside, then we hope you’re taking part in the true highlight of July 4th: the all-day Independence Day marathon. And should time really be an issue for you, we hope you can at least check out this homemade Independence Day trailer.

CineFix puts out these fantastic low-budget homemade trailers every few months and timed this one just right for the American holiday. Doing a shot-for-shot remake of any movie’s trailer with cardboard, household objects, and whatever else is lying around has got to be a daunting task. But remaking the trailer for 1996’s Independence Day is particularly ambitious considering all the action sequences, explosions, and CGI effects in it. As you can see, they absolutely nail it and even put out a behind-the-scenes reel for anyone wanting to see how the alien invader sausage is made.

These homemade pieces of awesome continue to push the homemade envelope by creating really fun analogs to effects. Shooting regular indoor shots seems easy enough to some degree but we’re floored by how great the massive explosions look when recreated with back-lit bunches of spray painted cotton. It’s truly something we would never think would look as good as it actually does in the finished product.

What are your thoughts on this take on the Independence Day trailer? What’s your favorite Homemade Trailer so far? Let’s discuss in the comments below!

Image: 20th Century Fox

Hodor Relives His GAME OF THRONES Trauma in a KFC UK Commercial

The next time you’re in a fast food joint and somebody asks you to “hold the door” for them, don’t take that responsibility lightly. According to a new TV spot for KFC running in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Hodor himself, Game of Thrones actor (and accomplished musician) Kristian Nairn, just might be the guy working the cash register. And we have no idea whether or not he’s telepathically linked to his younger self at any given moment.

While the commercial, found via EW, isn’t an official Game of Thrones tie-in (which is too bad, because who wouldn’t want to see the woefully inappropriate kids’ meal toys that might ensue, or eat a Sandor Clegane “Extra Crispy” wrap?), it most definitely plays on viewers’ knowledge of the show. Overwhelmed by hordes of dead-eyed customers repeating “chicken with fries” over and over, Nairn starts repeating the phrase himself, to the point that it becomes “chicken wif rice.” Chicken with rice, it turns out, is KFC’s newest menu item.

There seems to us an entire untapped market here. Maybe Peter Dinklage for 7-11? (“I drink Super Big Gulps, and I know things.”) Lena Headey for Ancestry.com? (“Sometimes I can’t tell my son apart from my nephew…”) Conleth “Lord Varys” Hill for Viagra? (“Don’t be like me!”) Any toilet bowl cleaner fast enough to snap up the name “Iron Throne”? Maisie Williams for sewing needles? Iwan Rheon-approved extra-meaty dog chow?

Maybe Gwendoline Christie and Kristofer Hivju for Match.com?

We’re guessing you can think of a few more. Sharpen your dragon glass and give us some good ideas down in comments below.

Image: KFC

Neill Blomkamp Wants to Bypass the Studios and Go Straight for the Fans

Neill Blomkamp has 180 minutes to prove himself to you.

The critically-beloved and critically-scolded mind behind District 9 and Chappie has the money to produce three hours of weird, wondrous blasts of experimental short film concepts while proudly waving the Oats Studios banner. After that, he’ll have to pass the hat and trust that you want to see more.

“The main goal eventually, if it’s possible, is to raise enough money from the audience to make films independently,” he tells me on the eve of the second Oats short, Firebase, hitting YouTube. He sounds tired, but energized. Surprisingly calm for a filmmaker testing the waters by cannon-balling into the deep end. Blomkamp and his team are working, Roger Corman style, out of a warehouse in Vancouver that houses all their pre- and post-production needs–from VFX to sound to editing. It’s a self-contained movie factory where they churn out tarry lizard-beasts and lift hundreds of M1 Abrams tanks into the stratosphere. The big question is how to pay the bills so the magic assembly line keeps rolling.

“There are a few different ways that we speak about it internally,” Blomkamp says. “There are four films in [Oats Studios] Volume 1, and then there are other weird, smaller pieces that go between them. So if the audience online has seen four films by the time Volume 1 is done, and there are enough people who liked what they saw, one option is we make Volume 2 and charge for it so we can make Volume 3.”

He continues,” The other way is that Volume 2 is free and Volume 3 is free and Volume 4 is free. All of the volumes are free forever. And we raise capital to make a film that’s based on whichever one of the shorter pieces that the audience is most receptive to that I would love to direct. Then, release that in theaters and use the profits of that to fund several more of the volumes.”

And finally: “The third option, which is the most unlikely option, but is also kind of the coolest, would be to ask the audience to pre-buy or fund the development of Volume 2 or a film. But I don’t think that’s viable. I don’t think you’d raise enough capital from that directly.”

About 48 hours after our conversation, Firebase already has more than 600k views. The first short film of the grand experiment, Rakka, dropped a washed-out Sigourney Weaver into a wasteland where aliens treat humans like vermin. It’s been seen more than 2.6m times.

Yet in a world of short attention spans and shallow loyalty, it’s hard to know whether numbers like that spell success. How can you be sure that the millions coming for the free candy will stay with you? Can you really trust the comments section or the ratio of little thumbs up icons to little thumbs down icons? For now, Blomkamp is trusting his gut, Oats’ creativity, and an experimental model that suggests something popular will emerge.

“Working in a studio environment for huge films, that really are $100 million films, makes sense to me,” he says. “It’s something that I want to go down the road of doing. But I think there’s another space where technology is opening up the way you can distribute and interact with audience members and there seems to be a way where it may be possible to live in an ecosystem where you can be creative as you wanna be and know whether you’ve succeeded or failed based on how the audience feels about things–to make stuff, see if it works or not, and be surprised by the ones that work and surprised by the ones that fail.”

Blomkamp believes that you can’t guess which of these projects will work. Or, maybe, that Oats’ creative model doesn’t afford the luxury of gaming the audience. “You could probably make something that was as streamlined to getting a positive response from the audience as possible, but we haven’t really done that, so whatever happens happens,” he says. “Either people like it or dislike it.”

One reason it might be tough to bet on a single short film’s success? They’re really, really weird. Blomkamp is truly treating this gamble as a gamble. While some filmmakers are using the internet space trying to prove they can utilize a fan-friendly formula to create generic science fiction, Blomkamp has the luxury of trading on his name to teleport to strange worlds and come back to Earth via left field. While others are trying to hook us in under 10 minutes, Blomkamp is hoping he’ll hold our attention for almost half an hour.

Both Rakka and Firebase come with an art house sheen to them–eschewing exposition and scenes of dialogue in favor of atmospheric flashes and shrouded high concepts that promise to give the viewer’s head-scratching arm a workout.

When Rakka landed a few weeks ago, critics all noted how strange and ephemeral it was. Firebase has it beat on that front. The Vietnam War-set allegory circles the story of a Doctor Manhattan-like “God” who roams the jungles ripping soldiers’ insides out, transforming jets to spray fire on their allies, and flummoxing an overconfident American battalion. When discussing it, Blomkamp talks about Simulation Hypothesis, “messing with space-time,” and setting The Matrix in Vietnam. “The tone of it in certain areas was meant to be surreal,” he says. “I like the idea that, if the audience doesn’t explicitly know that it’s a simulation–and that someone from one perspective can now sense that and The River God from another perspective has overcome that–the audience can get these images and feelings and ideas that seem supernatural or seem inexplicable, but to the filmmakers they are explainable and they do follow logic.”

If given the chance–presumably by impressing the money out of your pockets–Blomkamp wants to mess with space-time in Ancient Egypt, too.

It would be naive not to see this move toward independence as at least partially connected to a sophomore stretch of mixed results under a major studio. Namely, making Elysium and Chappie for Sony, and the development hell of his Alien sequel at Fox which Blomkamp says “isn’t gonna get made.”

He reminds me that they started building the Oats warehouse more than a year before he began work on his now-defunct Alien movie, but admits the possibility that his turn toward freedom and risk could be “subconsciously related” to it.

Even it’s an oversimplification to think that a filmmaker has chosen to work outside the system because his visions haven’t always been best served by that system, it’s refreshing to see as bold an experiment as Oats Studios. To see a writer/director carve out a space where oddball ideas can thrive. To build a studio around the films and not the other way around. Yes, Blomkamp is using all of us as guinea pigs to see which of those films work, but it’s also firmly possible that, after he sprints through his 180 minutes, he will have succeeded only in handing over snippets of blockbuster-level material to millions, for free.

Which brings us back to the question at the heart of his experiment. The vast majority of filmmakers releasing the short films online are doing so to catch the eye and pocket book of a major studio, and while Blomkamp is open to working under a major studio’s umbrella if his Cormanesque factory system is left in place, that isn’t Oats’ ultimate objective. “I won’t take options off the table as if we’re mandating things, but the goal is very clear,” Blomkamp says.

“The goal is to communicate with and make films for the audience as if I was an audience member. So I thought, all free, see how it goes, is the best approach. Figure out the insane business model later. The business model right now is like a dumpster fire of money. That’s the model. But you do end up with interesting creativity through it.”

Images: Oats Studios

This Map Shows Every State’s Favorite Video Game Character

Although the popularity battle between Mario and Sonic may have been a close race in the ’90s, it seems like these days, that competition has a very clear winner. Hint: he’s more into red than he is blue. While that’s the way it goes in a broad and general sense, you might find that this opinion isn’t the predominant one everywhere you go. It actually varies on a state-by-state basis, as the folks at decluttr illustrate on the map below.

The info comes from Google search data, although we’re not sure if it’s over the past month or six months or year or what have you. Regardless, it turns out the Mario-v-Sonic debate may not be as settled as we thought. Each character emerged as the most popular in seven states—Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, South Dakota, and Washington for Mario, whereas Sonic claimed Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wyoming.

That only accounts for 14 states, though, and after a bit of quick math, we’ve determined that leaves 36 states in which they’re not the most popular. In fact, they don’t even have that large of a lead over the next two most popular character: Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft and Freddy Fazbear from Five Nights At Freddy’s each took six states.

Find the written-out list here, and let us know in the comments below if you’re proud of or ashamed by the video game character your state is Googling more than any other.

Images: Nintendo, decluttr

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Marvel Legends Figures Give You Wings (Figures and Speech)

With Spider-Man: Homecoming hitting theaters this upcoming week to generally positive word of mouth, there’s a more-than-decent shot you or someone you know might be looking for some screen-accurate toys to commemorate the occasion. And offhand, it sounds simple enough to collect them all, as there are only three Hasbro Marvel Legends specifically based on the movie: Spider-Man, Homemade Costume Spider-Man, and Vulture.

But there’s a catch. Unless you want your Vulture grounded, and looking only like this…

…you’re going to have to buy four more figures to build his wings. Say hello to the full wave.

We’ll get to the comic-based guys in a moment. First, let’s ask ourselves the question: is it worth buying the Vulture figure by himself without the wings? I’ll say this: I wish he came with a Michael Keaton head. As is, he’s neither fully flight-geared nor the completely grounded look. Which is not to say he isn’t nicely detailed, and suitably creepy.

But my guess is you’ll be wanting to create scenes like this:

Or this:

And for that, you’ll need this. For what it’s worth, there’s a lot of articulation in this wing set, with rotating VTOL engines and folding wing joints.

It even looks a bit like a bird face without the human attached.

Now, let’s take a look at the Spideys.

The detail on the main Spidey figure is great, but I’m not crazy about the way they pulled off the web wing effect, with two plug-in pieces that fall out easily, and took me literally 30 minutes to find again. (Kids, don’t play outdoors with clear bits that aren’t stuck in good.) You probably won’t want to use them much, though they look good in basically one pose:

He comes with two sets of hands (thwip! and fists) and two heads (wide-eyed and narrow-eyed). The narrow-eyed head looks more like what we’ve seen so far, though mine had an odd white swab on it. I mostly got it off with my fingernail, but still, weird.

As you can see, he also has the extra Spider-Man “inward flex” pec joints, and is the only figure in this series to do so. However, he lacks the mid-thigh “boot cut” joint, probably because his boots have angled tops that can’t conceal articulation as easily.

I’m not crazy about the homemade costume, but I will say Hasbro went all out for such a simple design, with textures and shades.

Not to mention alternate hands, and two different hoods. Seems dangerous wearing fingerless gloves if you don’t want to be “printed,” but he is a reckless kid.

So now, let’s look at who else you have to buy to make the Vulture soar. Tombstone is fairly basic, but the raised seam on his jacket is a sculpted detail and not just paint.

Beetle has an iridescent finish that’s pretty and shiny.

He also has multiple wings that pop up, but gravity does not always hold their weight fully aloft (look closely at the ones on the left side of this pic relative to the right).

And this guy is packaged merely as “Spider-Man,” which will confuse the hell out of parents. In fact, to comic fans he’s more often called Captain Universe, a role that has been filled by more than one person.

There’s Peter Parker with Captain Universe powers, and bearded Peter Parker from Earth 13 in Spider-Verse.

And then there’s Ted Simmons, the Chicago cop who briefly held the role. All three heads and the blue metallic paint really make the rather generic body pop.

Finally, Moon Knight comes on his own unique card due to his popularity as one of Marvel’s darker characters.

I’m not sure what the point is of the smaller “Moonerangs”–he can’t hold them and I don’t think they clip on anywhere. The big one works, though.

For me, as a collector of primarily movie stuff, I don’t know that I’d buy a wingless Vulture or all the extra figures to build his wings. There are Vulture figures with wings in the more kid-centric lines, though, so you have options.

If you’re building a perfect movie set of Avengers one by one, however, rest assured Spidey looks good in the team. (Also, Hasbro, please give us newer Legends of Black Widow and Hawkeye.)

The Spider-Man Marvel Legends will run you around $19.99 each, and should be hitting stores any day now.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson

Talk toys with Luke on Twitter @LYTrules

With Record Relaunches, SpaceX is Basically Inventing the Future

With the feasibility of recapturing and reusing equipment now proven (both Dragon supply capsules and Falcon 9 rocket first stages), it’s hard to be a legitimate critic of Elon Musk’s (our dad’s) private spaceflight company SpaceX. Sure, the company is behind on many of its goals timing-wise, but when you’re as ambitious as Elon, that’s to be expected. At this rate, the future envisioned by Mass Effect: Andromeda is more than on-track. SpaceX is currently nailing relaunches and landings so quickly that it’s setting records. Let’s get our asses to Mars.

Two incredible launches and landings in one weekend  marks a new record both for SpaceX and for private spaceflight, and with a previously used rocket stage, no less! This can only mean one thing: time for MUSKWATCH.

Also on the show today, I put on literally too much SpaceX gear (someone over there must really like me), Elon toys with the idea of a hyperloop hotel, we break down daddy’s choice in video games from BioShock to Overwatch, and Dan drops a bombshell so big that it may create a rift in our friendship forever. Seriously, I can’t believe he did this.

Muskwatch airs on Nerdist.com and YouTube every Tuesday, but you can hack the planet and watch it two full days earlier on Sunday if you’re an Alpha subscriber. Find out how you can get 30 days free (and be 48 hours smarter than your dumb friends) right here.

What do you think of this week’s top stories? What else would you like to see us discuss on Muskwatch? Let us know in the comments below!

Have These Classic Movies Already Spoiled THE LAST JEDI?

What if Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson somehow managed to spoil the entire movie last February? Believe it or not, that may be exactly what he did. At the time, it seemed as though Johnson had just enjoyed a nice interview with Collider about the three films that influenced The Last Jedi. We didn’t even see any of the deeper meaning in his comments… until recent rumors about The Last Jedi‘s plot. Suddenly, those movies make a lot more sense in the context of Star Wars. Today’s holiday edition of Nerdist News is going to explain why that may have given away some critical developments.

Warning: there are potentially major spoilers ahead for The Last Jedi. This may be a theory, but it holds together pretty well. And if it’s true, then you may regret learning about the plot so far ahead of the movie. This is your final chance to turn back! You’re welcome.

Join host and the keeper of the Jedi Holocron, Jessica Chobot, as she walks us through the films that Johnson cited as his primary influences. The first was Hideo Gosha’s samurai classic, Three Outlaw Samurai. This is key, because Luke Skywalker is rumored to have an epic showdown with the Knights of Ren as he demonstrates the full extent of his Jedi Master powers. In Three Outlaw Samurai, the lone hero dispatched his enemies with brutally efficient swordplay. We can just imagine Luke doing the same thing in lightsaber battles that would be a marked departure from the theatrical fights in the previous films.

Next up is Henry King’s Twelve O’ Clock High, a 1949 World War II epic that used actual aerial combat from the war in the film. That movie followed an Allied bomber squadron as they took up a suicide mission to take out targets in Germany and occupied France. George Lucas has already cited this movie as an influence on the X-Wings and the way that they flew in the original trilogy. For The Last Jedi, we can easily see Poe and the rest of Black Squadron on a suicide mission to take out the Mega-Star Destroyer of the First Order…and failing.

Finally, we come to Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. It’s a masterfully made film, but what could this possibly offer the Star Wars saga? A lot. And everything that we’ve already learned about the casino planet, Canto Bight, makes the selection of this film even more telling. In that movie, Cary Grant played John Robie, a former jewel thief who reformed and attempted to stop another thief. The problem was that nobody really believed that John had changed. We think that Finn may have a similar problem in The Last Jedi. Sure, he helped take out Starkiller Base, but Finn may still have to prove himself to his new friends.

We may even be able to infer that Finn will also find a bit of romance in this storyline, just like John did. Perhaps that’s why Finn has been paired on this adventure with Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico.

What do you think about the three films that influenced Johnson on The Last Jedi? Draw your lightsabers and let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Images: Lucasfilm

Bringing Back the Playset, BEN 10 Delivers a Fun Transforming RV Toy (Figures and Speech)

Welcome to Figures & Speech, Nerdist’s regular column by, for, and about grown-ups who still play with their toys but might want to know more before they buy.

It used to be that no matter how obscure your toy line was, there’d be a big-ticket “base” playset to go with it. Back in the day, it could be crucial to have a headquarters to defend–if you couldn’t afford the actual toy, you might make one out of cardboard. These days, the latter option is more likely, as playsets aren’t considered especially viable by toy companies; they take up too much space and cost too much. So props to Playmates for a really creative solution, which goes by the name of…Rustbucket.

Rustbucket increases its value both by being a vehicle as well as a headquarters, and by making good use of negative space to seem bigger than it is, and pack away nicely when playtime is done. Another factor in the demise of playsets is that overseas kids don’t always have the same kind of floorspace American kids do, so a base that can maximize less real estate is valuable.

Ben 10 is not a property I’m super-familiar with, beyond having once gone on a Ben 10-themed roller coaster that went backwards and forwards. But as I gather, it’s about a kid who can transform into 10 different aliens. According to the Rustbucket box, the latest animated series has him on a road trip with “Gwen and Max.” That said, as far as I can tell, there are no Gwen and Max figures…

So that leaves either an underage boy or an alien alter-ego at the wheel. Unless, that is, you want to bring in some other 6-inch figures.

Like the Playmobil Ecto-1, this vehicle has a play-friendly functionality that lets you put the drivers in through the roof rather than providing doors that open. Fair enough.

It’s more or less intact right out of the box, or so you think at first.

Here’s the catch: it requires A LOT of stickers. Now, kids love stickers. I don’t, because I get freaked out about not putting them on quite right. And not all of them here are a perfect fit.

Almost all the color designs like the red stripes are, in fact, stickers. Which keeps the price (a reasonable $49.99) down by reducing paint ops.

The transformation aspect is fairly easy, requiring just some basic unfolding and pulling out of support struts. Note how a lot of empty space still gives you three different levels to play with.

Most of the key features are highlighted on the box, like the missile-launcher and the capture claw, though I’ll note that the “alien-vator” is really more like a crate attached to a winch, and it really doesn’t take figures anywhere they need to actually go.

The missile launcher has a rotating chair beneath–the old Masters of the Universe “Eternia” playset had a similar feature.

There’s also a rotating transformation chamber for Ben, though some of the alien figures are maybe a bit big to fit perfectly in it.

Speaking of said figures, they’re $8.99 and look a bit cheap in the package, but they’re actually quite solidly made and feature multiple ball joints, including elbows and knees. For what they are, they’re a good value.

Other features include a video screen that swivels around to become a medical bay bed.

And yeah, that capture claw.

I’d love to see what a customizer with the right paints could do to make this into a Walking Dead RV. In the meantime, though, it’s a colorful and fun toy for kids that hides its limits well. I’m sure the Ninja Turtles could have a blast with it even if Ben 10 isn’t your thing.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson

Want to keep talking toys? Hit Luke up on Twitter at @LYTrules.

John Oliver Created a Warren G. Harding Biopic Starring a Creepy Wax Figure

The United States has been led by 45 different presidents in its illustrious history, but some of them get a lot more respect then others. After all, how do you compete with the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, who held the country together during the Civil War, or Franklin Roosevelt, whose social welfare programs lifted America out of the Great Depression? Or Warren G. Harding, who… hm. What did he do again?

As John Oliver demonstrated on the most recent episode of Last Week Tonight, Harding is known today for the Teapot Dome, a bribery episode that, before Watergate, was considered as the biggest scandal in American political history… and for his many sexual trysts on top of that. But of course, everyone knows that the best way to teach the public about a historical figure is with a star-studded biopic, and that’s just what Oliver did, enlisting the help of Campbell Scott, Anna Kendrick, Michael McKean, James Cromwell, Laura “fucking” Linney… and a wax figure of Harding bought from the now-defunct Hall of Presidents and First Ladies Wax Museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.Yup, you read that right.

The best part of this story, though, is that John Oliver wasn’t the only media luminary to jump at the chance to own a figure from the collection from the Hall Of Presidents (he actually now owns five). So did Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart, who all have forgettable presidents of their own, too. I guess when you’re a political commentator with a bunch of money at your disposal, that’s what you do with it.

Jokes aside, you never know: a Harding biopic might actually do well if you actually cast a human actor in the lead role. Let us know what other presidents from America’s past you’d want to see star in movies in the comments below!

Image: HBO

ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD Gets Even Better with First DLC Pack

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will not only go down as one of the best games of 2017, but will etch its name into the history books as one of the greatest games ever made. Our glowing review says as much. And while a few folk out there were skeptical about Nintendo‘s ability to produce DLC that is both quality and relatively easy on the wallet, I can happily report that the first expansion drop is rather impressive.

The first release of a two-part season pass, “Master Trials” adds quite a bit to the already massive adventure game, including: Master Mode (a.k.a. hard mode), Trial of the Sword quest, a new map feature, and new masks and outfits.

It doesn’t sound all that impressive until you realize that the stand-out part of the package is actually the Trial of the Sword quest that drops you into one battle room after another until you hit 45 rooms. It’s a grueling challenge that increases in difficulty the further you go, with only three different check points throughout the quest. However, it’s also an absurdly fun time that will test your ability to survive. The only prerequisite to taking on this challenge is having already unlocked the Master Sword.

When starting off the trials you lose all of your gear, excluding your Runes, forcing you to use only skill to persevere. You’ll have to find a way to clear each room of enemies that range from easily taken down with a stick, to the more fierce enemies seen in Hyrule. Finding and sustaining gear becomes of utmost importance, as well. Your reward is permanently unlocking your Master Sword’s awakened state and removing the need to let the mighty blade cool down. It’s not exactly the best reward for those who already completed the main quest, but the fun is in actually challenging yourself through all of the rooms.

Speaking of content made specifically for those who’ve already defeated Calamity Ganon, the new Master Mode (hard mode) adds more upgraded enemies (standard enemies are replaced with their beefier versions that pack more of a punch) throughout Hyrule and adds some other wrinkles for those who thought the game was too easy. For one, you’ll only get one save file and one auto-save file, a nightmare for those who like to stock up a million save files just in case you take a wrong turn somewhere. Where you would originally face red Bokoblins, you’ll now see the stronger blue variant (the same goes for other enemy types). Some baddies can now restore health as well, and you’ll even see one of the toughest enemies, the Lynel, in the Great Plateau. It can be brutal if you’re not ready for it. And some enemies will also take to the skies, as you can see in the image above. Nintendo also claims there are enemies in this mode that aren’t in the normal setting; I haven’t scoured all of Hyrule to confirm it, but I’ll take their word for it.

It’s definitely more difficult, maybe not impossible like some believed it would be, but it will test your swordsman skills. Is it enough of a reason to replay the whole game? Probably not, but if you’re looking for an excuse to return, look no further.

Along with the above additions, there is now a way to track everywhere you’ve been in Hyrule with the new Hero’s Path map feature. This nifty map trick will show a track of lines revealing all the spots you’ve visited in the past 200 hours. It will be erased after those couple hundred hours, but will start tracking again. I wish this had been included in the original release, but it’s nice for those who’re attempting to 100% the game. There’s also Travel Medallion that will give you the ability to create a custom fast travel, just to make your quest a bit more manageable.

Finally, no DLC would be complete without some new outfits. Everyone’s cosplay dreams have finally been realized: You can now wear a Tingle outfit. It’s as glorious as you think it is. You can also unlock Korok Mask (which helps you find Korok seeds), Majora’s Mask, Midna’s Helmet, and Phantom Armor. While pretty inconsequential (other than Korok Mask), they are still rad.

The season pass for Breath of the Wild is $20, and is unfortunately the only way you can grab this first expansion. But, honestly, with the amount of content and quality, this is already a better value than most season passes. And we still have another pack to go! The Master Trials quest is stellar, and worth the price of admission alone. This content can add hundreds of hours of enjoyment to your Zelda quest. Nintendo knocked it out of the park with this DLC, and am hoping I can say the same for the rest of the Breath of the Wild DLC. If you’re a fan of the game, and want more, definitely nab the season pass.

Image: Nintendo